Definition of "witan" [wit•an]

• The members of the witenagemot in Anglo-Saxon England. (noun-plural)
• The witenagemot. (noun-plural)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But we ought not to allow the use of the word witan in this connexion, by the Saxon chronicler, or of "election" by other historians or by Henry himself, to impose upon us the belief in a constitutional right of election in the modern sense, which could no more have existed at that time than a definite law of inheritance."
• ""This then is the secular law which by the counsel of my 'witan' I will that it be observed all over England"."
• "A body of nobles known as the "witan" joined with the king in most of the actions of government."